The present invention is related to methods of placing advertisements and/or other communications on multiple websites and is particularly useful for advertising on the websites of newspapers.
National advertisers, such as national companies offering financial services, packaged goods, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, health care products, automobiles, as well as other groups wishing to perform national promotions such as political parties, have very labor intensive requirements if they wish to advertise on the websites of local newspapers. Presently, if a national advertiser wishes to conduct a local advertising campaign using the websites of local newspapers, the company or its advertising agency would have to deal directly with each local newspaper since different papers have different advertising rates, different size advertising space available, different technical specifications, and different sections. For example, different newspapers around the country may or may not have business sections, sports sections, weather pages, classified sections, local news sections, national news sections, entertainment sections and/or various other sections covering such topics such food, fashion, health, politics, weekend, parenting, teens, etc. Furthermore, there are format variations within each section, for example, some business sections may offer only one html (electronic page) while others may offer six, seven or more including: personal finance, mortgage rates, retirement planning, funding education, mutual funds, stocks, savings/CD rates, etc. Such different sections are typically displayed on different URLs, i.e., web pages, on the newspaper""s website. Therefore, if a national soup company decides to place advertisements on the web pages of 20 different newspapers which show local weather, that soup company or its agent would typically be required to contact each of those newspapers and determine the process and parameters for placing an ad. Then, since different newspapers would most likely have different spacing and size requirements for their available advertising space as, as well as different pricing plans and different closing dates for the purchase of online advertising space, each ad placement would have to be negotiated and separate ads would have to be configured to fit the sizes of the different sites. In addition to rates and sizing of the ads, in dealing on an individual basis, national advertisers must typically obtain every URL on the newspaper site and must alert servers to track each of these URLs. Auditors must also be alerted to the specific URLs being used on each newspaper, and the newspaper""s interactive staff must be monitored on a twenty-four hour per day and seven day per week basis. Individual, electronic insertion orders must be sent out with specific instructions and a follow up to each newspaper must be made to each to ensure its receipt by each newspaper.
In light of the substantial effort required for each local newspaper website, national advertisers typically avoid advertising on the websites of local newspapers. Thus, the inventors of the present systems believe there is a need for a more efficient method for national advertisers to purchase, place, monitor and modify advertisements on the websites of local newspapers.
Additionally, the present inventors believe that online newspaper websites are selling significantly less than all of their available advertising space inventory. Therefore, there is a need for methods to facilitate the sale of a greater percentage of online newspapers"" advertising space.
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods for obtaining Internet-type advertisements, modifying those advertisements to fit the designated advertising spaces allotted by a plurality of different and unrelated online newspaper websites, automatically placing those advertisements, monitoring the success of the placed ads and modifying the ads and their placements to meet dynamic goals of an advertising campaign.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention additionally provide methods which permit online advertisements to be tracked, audited and/or modified, at any time midstream during a specific placement.
The various embodiments of the present invention are particularly advantageous to national advertisers and their advertising agencies which, utilizing one or more of the methods of the present invention, can obtain multiple online newspaper website advertisements utilizing a single order entry.
Embodiments of the present invention provide turnkey solutions that allow major advertisers to buy advertising in local markets, such as Long Island Newsday, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, etc. Embodiments of the present invention enable an advertiser to target newspapers geographically.
Online newspaper websites are different from some other websites since, other than the ads which are the subject of the present invention, are typically 100% content sites and also typically comprise multiple URLs and web pages which offer various marketers editorial or content which is complementary to their advertising message. For example, an advertiser of financial services can place ads on financial URLs, while an automobile advertiser could be placed on auto URLs, etc.
Embodiments of the present invention enable a national advertiser to target newspapers geographically through a domain name, identify specific URLs and web pages therein, direct the placement of the electronic impression on the web page, monitor and control the volume of traffic in terms of both web page views and visits, i.e., click-throughs, as well as to audit and determine accurate billing. Due to the size and complicated nature of online newspaper websites, they can sometimes change hourly. Embodiments of the present invention can track all of these parameters and make necessary changes in order to provide the advertiser with total accuracy in evaluating the success of an advertising campaign during the life of the campaign.
Embodiments of the present invention are particularly suited to online newspaper websites in that the advertiser may require an electronic impression on a specific section for a pre-determined period of time in order to attract traffic. Embodiments of the present invention enable an advertiser or an intermediary to electronically purchase multiple online advertising spaces, specific URLs, and to order, audit, configure ads to fit specific sizes, closing dates, locations on a web page, frequency of rotation, file size (Kb), image dimensions and auditing systems of the different sites.
These and other aspects of the present invention are described in further detail below.